Democracy Now!

These Zinn Education Project resources feature clips and interviews from Democracy Now! The Zinn Education Project offers many more resources, including free downloadable lessons. Learn how teachers can schedule class visits—in-person or virtual to the Democracy Now! studios.

Kelly Lytle Hernández on the 1910 Mexican Revolution

Author Kelly Lytle Hernández spoke about the magonistas, a group of agitators who challenged Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz in the early 20th century. This session is part of the Zinn Education Project’s Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online people’s history series.
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North Dakota Bans Teaching About Structural Racism

North Dakota passed a law to ban teaching "that racism is systemically embedded in American society and the American legal system to facilitate racial inequality." Instead, teachers must say that "racism is merely the product of learned individual bias or prejudice."
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Aug. 14, 2017: Activists Topple Confederate Monument in Durham

Freedom fighter Takiyah Thompson looped a bright yellow strap around the neck of a Durham, North Carolina monument to Confederate soldiers, and a crowd of other activists pulled it down, inspiring other communities to take direct action in removing public symbols that glorify white supremacy, and to raise up new stories that celebrate all people.
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Pitchfork Magazine on Education and the Election

Pitchfork magazine wrote about the 2016 elections in an article titled, "How to Get Involved in Politics Right Now: Take These Musicians’ Leads." They stressed the importance of teaching people's history, "...we must take seriously the ways in which public school resources represent our history. One easy way to do so it to look at the Zinn Education Project."
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Slavery by Another Name (Film) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Slavery by Another Name

Film. By Sam Pollard, Catherine Allan, Douglas Blackmon and Sheila Curran Bernard. 2012. 90 minutes.
Reveals the interlocking forces in the South and the North that enabled “neoslavery” post-Emancipation Proclamation.
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The Voting Rights Act: Ten Things You Should Know | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

The Voting Rights Act: Ten Things You Should Know

With the 2016 presidential election in the news, we share this article by Emilye Crosby and Judy Richardson, “The Voting Rights Act: Ten Things You Should Know.” Crosby and Richardson discuss key points in the history of the 1965 Voting Rights Act missing from most textbooks. We also share a segment from Democracy Now! on voting rights today.
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Henry Kissinger Is No Friend of Humanity

Did you see the Democratic debate last night? Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger became a point of contention. We can take this opportunity to introduce students to Kissinger. It was Kissinger who famously called anti-Vietnam War activist and whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg "the most dangerous man in America."
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Bree Newsome: I Refused to Be Ruled by Fear

In June, while politicians continued to debate about the implications of taking down the Confederate flag after the shooting of nine people at Emmanuel AME Church and several arson fires on Black churches in the South that followed, Bree Newsome scaled the South Carolina state flag pole and took the flag down herself. She did not organized this effort alone.
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Eduardo Galeano, ¡Presente!

The great writer, historian, activist, and critic, Eduardo Galeano, died on April 13, 2015. His work was a gift to every teacher who hopes to make sense of this "upside down world" with students.
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The Koch Brothers Sneak into School: How Right-wing Billionaires Seek to Shape the Social Studies Curriculum

How Right-wing Billionaires Seek to Shape the Social Studies Curriculum

By Bill Bigelow
This month in Boston, thousands of teachers will gather for the annual National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) conference. Two non-teachers will be there, too: Charles and David Koch, the notorious right-wing billionaires.

Well, the Kochs won’t be there in person, but they will be represented by a Koch-funded and controlled organization: the Arlington, Virginia-based Bill of Rights Institute.
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